When my wife drives and we come to a complete stop, if the car next to me has their window down I usually try to ask them their favorite dinosaur. So far only one person has gotten really mad at me, most people just get confused.
Oh yeah, I can se that. I'm not sure why I fixated on stegosaurus but man, if you asked me at age 5 who my best friend was id probably have said, "Stegosaurus!"
Feathered T-Rex. The theory is that those useless little arms are actually supposed to be wings makes more sense. Do they fly? No, and neither do ostriches. Probably glide tho.
That enabled animals to grow as large as they did, and it enabled massive pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus to exist. And even Quetzalcoatlus, which is much lighter and had much larger wings than T. rex, has been the subject of debate as to whether and to what extent it could fly. Both existed in the late Cretaceous period.
the atmosphere 66 million years ago wasn't that different to the atmosphere today, the reason why pterosaurs like quetzalcoatlus was able to grow to such massive sizes was because they had extremely light skeletons. higher oxygen levels did allow arthropods to grow to giant sizes during the carboniferous, but it would have little effect on how large vertebrates could grow.
I'm not comparing dinosaurs to mammals though. I'm comparing them to pterosaurs. Or more specifically, I'm comparing the specific dinosaur in question (T. rex) to the largest and most likely to struggle with flying of the pterosaurs, (Q. northropi).
T. rex was, according to my quick search, at least 5000 kg. Q. northropi was just 250 kg at the higher end of estimates. The dinosaur had an armspan less than a metre, while the pterosaur's was in excess of 10 times that.
That enabled animals to grow as large as they did, and it enabled massive pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus to exist.
I wasn't responding to comparing dinosaurs to pterosaurs. I was responding to the part about them being big because of the atmosphere.
There's a number of reasons we don't have brontosaur-sized elephants. The differences in the atmosphere explains far less than hyper-efficient lungs and light bones.
It wasn't different enough that those chicken wings would let a 15,000 lb critter fly. It had more oxygen, which was helpful for letting critters get big (esp insects), but it wasnt physically thick.
I always like pterodactyls, specifically the classic big lizard ones. I do have a tiny Dimetrodon in my pc case though that I got out of a crane machine.
Pterodactyls aren't dinosaurs, FYI: they're pterosaurs. It doesn't matter in the least, but I have a 5-year-old so I'm learning a lot about prehistoric reptiles.
There's two big groups of four-limbed vertebrates: amphibians (like frogs), and amniotes (like us and birds). Amniotes developed into two groups: synapsids (mammals) and saurapsids (lizards, birds, turtles, etc.).
Dimetrodon was a synapsid that ruled the world tens of millions of years before the first dinosaurs evolved.
That makes it really cool, actually, precisely because it isn't a dinosaur. Dimetrodon is to us as brotosaurus is to chickens: a really interesting great great etc uncle.
That moment when someone mentions something and it brings back old memories. I had a big pterodactyl as a kid, sold as a plastic model kit to assemble. Had it hanging from the ceiling for years, and had long forgotten it.
I would genuinely rather hear what everyone's favorite dinosaur is, than who their favorite sports team is. Yet, society thinks I should care whole lot about the latter...
Of all the animals ever to have roamed the planet, the iconic long-necked, long-tailed dinosaurs known as sauropods stand unrivaled. No other terrestrial creatures have come close to attaining their colossal sizes.
As a child, Velociraptor, as an adult I probably wouldn't choose a velociraptor because of how deadly they are. I would probably choose a more friendly docile dinosaur but I honestly don't know what the best one would be.
There were some really dinosaur-like crocodiles, too. Shuvosaurus and poposaurus, for example.
But for whatever reason, they decided to define dinosaurs to exclude pterosaurs and crocodiles; they're the closest relatives of dinosaurs but are still relatives and not actual dinos.
Biologists like using clades to describe things, these days. A clade is all the descendants of some common ancestor on an evolutionary tree.
That particularly means that they disfavor terms that refer to almost all of the descendants of something, but exclude one branch because reasons. Which does make sense, right? "Paraphyletic groups" are like saying "The Vanderbilt family is all the descendants of Cornelius Vanderbilt... except for Anderson Cooper and his descendants".
So the technical definition of dinosaur, right now, is anything descended from the most recent common ancestor of triceratops, diplodocus, and the house sparrow.
Crocodiles are clearly dinosaurs while birds have diverged so much they can only reasonably be called descendents of dinosaurs and nothing more. You can look at them and tell.
Various extinct crocodiles like Poposaurus were initially confused with dinosaurs due to some convergent evolution.
But modern crocs lack a lot of distinctive dinosaur traits, like having their legs directly under them.
More to the point, though, look at this fossil of caihong juji and tell me it doesn't look more like a bird than a crocodile. Through a minor geologic miracle, the feathers were even preserved! It even seems like they were probably quite colorful.
Look at t-rex's bird-like hips and feet. Compare them to the sprawling legs of a croc. Posture- wise, it looks way more like an ostrich than a croc.
And yeah, T-rex was almost certainly scaly, but evolved from feathered dinosaurs. Other earlier species in tyrannosauroidea like yutyrannus huali and dilong paradoxus had feathers.
Because they are herbivores and are badass with their killer thumbs. Also they have funny looking faces and probably had a funny walk similar to a kangaroo.
Researches first put their thumb horns on their noses which is hilarious as well.
It is technically prehistoric, which I did not know until now. Same with coelacanths, and they're pretty damn cool.
I don't think my poor, sweet Dunkleosteus really qualifies as what people think of when they think dinosaur, either. But it turned its supportive gill arches into the world's first jawbones!
I named my motorcycle Sarah from The Land Before Time. Guess mine is a Triceratops. She got the name because she's punchy and Hella fast. Love you YZF-R6
Stegosaurus was my favorite too as a kid. These days I've grown more boring ig and I would probably go with T-Rex, but Stegosaurus will always have a place in my heart too.
"Avian dinosaurs" is current birds. The term "non-avian dinosaurs" is often used specifically to refer to what the casual person is usually thinking of when they hear the word "dinosaur".
No, you were right the first time. Avian doesn't mean "flying", but "relating to birds". Basically, dinosaurs are a big tree (the technical term is "clade") consisting of all animals that descend from a particular common ancestor (the last common ancestor of all dinosaurs). Because all birds descend from the same last common ancestor as raptors, sauropods, ceratopsia (e.g. triceratops), etc., birds are dinosaurs.
There seems to be some disagreement about the precise use of terminology in formal contexts, but I think in an informal context the term "avian" in "non-avian dinosaurs" has a comparatively clear meaning. Avians seems to point to the clade "aves", which are (in this case) the last common ancestor of all the currently living birds and all of its descendants. So non-avian dinosaurs is taking the clade of all creatures descended from the last common ancestor of all dinosaurs, and snipping off the sub-clade of those creatures descended from the last common ancestor of all birds.
Pterosaurs are among the most closely-related creatures to dinosaurs, but are not quite included. Bats are a long way removed from the clade of dinosaurs, and insects are even further away. None of these are avian, despite sharing the ability for flight.
Incidentally, you do seem to have touched upon three of the four separate times flight has evolved. Insects, birds, and bats. The fourth being pterosaurs. It's also thought that scansoriopterygidae, another family of dinosaurs, might have been able to fly (they could definitely at least glide), which would mean dinosaurs evolved flight two separate times: scansoriopterygidae and birds.
I'm your nemesis! The lame kid that never found dinosaurs very interesting, yes, I shall bring my rule over all dinosaur lovers, for they must suffer too the staleness of a shallow life! I'll make everyone's life a plain, boring grayness, MWAHAHAH- Can you tell me more about the triceratops?
(｡•́︿•̀｡)
Where's my ankylosaurus gang at?
Me! Always thought that club was badass
Another community missing (?) from lemmy - /r/ankmemes.
Check it, bitch! https://sh.itjust.works/c/ankmemes
Nice!
Badass club, badass spikes, badass plates, AND a vegetarian? What a spectacular specimen.
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/56/e3/33/56e333cb72605c3e8851a0b369599bed--far-side-cartoons-far-side-comics.jpg
Yo, me too! Though as a kid I thought it was anklyosaurus, and somehow related to ankles.
Unless we're allowed to include extant dinosaur species. In which case the bush stone-curlew is my fav. ❤️ those adorable screemy bois.
Definitely ankle related. Think how it can shatter ankles with that tail.
Get jumped in at https://sh.itjust.works/c/ankmemes
When my wife drives and we come to a complete stop, if the car next to me has their window down I usually try to ask them their favorite dinosaur. So far only one person has gotten really mad at me, most people just get confused.
How dare you bother me in public! /s
Why isn’t this trending on TikTok?
You mainly do it to amuse your wife don't you, you delightful mischievous bastard.
Triceratops was always my fav.
Horn gang represent!
There's dozens of us (if you count lurkers)
Absolutely. I don't know what it is about them but yeah, stegosaurus are cool.
Oh yeah, I can se that. I'm not sure why I fixated on stegosaurus but man, if you asked me at age 5 who my best friend was id probably have said, "Stegosaurus!"
Feathered T-Rex. The theory is that those useless little arms are actually supposed to be wings makes more sense. Do they fly? No, and neither do ostriches. Probably glide tho.
With wings that tiny I doubt a T-Rex was doing much gliding either, considering its size.
Maybe falling with style? No, probably not that either.
They Naruto run after you. Thats gotta be it lol
The atmosphere was different then.
That enabled animals to grow as large as they did, and it enabled massive pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus to exist. And even Quetzalcoatlus, which is much lighter and had much larger wings than T. rex, has been the subject of debate as to whether and to what extent it could fly. Both existed in the late Cretaceous period.
the atmosphere 66 million years ago wasn't that different to the atmosphere today, the reason why pterosaurs like quetzalcoatlus was able to grow to such massive sizes was because they had extremely light skeletons. higher oxygen levels did allow arthropods to grow to giant sizes during the carboniferous, but it would have little effect on how large vertebrates could grow.
Dinosaur lungs are much more efficient than mammal lungs. Their bones are lighter, too.
It's also why birds can fly so much higher and be so much larger than bats.
I'm not comparing dinosaurs to mammals though. I'm comparing them to pterosaurs. Or more specifically, I'm comparing the specific dinosaur in question (T. rex) to the largest and most likely to struggle with flying of the pterosaurs, (Q. northropi).
T. rex was, according to my quick search, at least 5000 kg. Q. northropi was just 250 kg at the higher end of estimates. The dinosaur had an armspan less than a metre, while the pterosaur's was in excess of 10 times that.
I wasn't responding to comparing dinosaurs to pterosaurs. I was responding to the part about them being big because of the atmosphere.
There's a number of reasons we don't have brontosaur-sized elephants. The differences in the atmosphere explains far less than hyper-efficient lungs and light bones.
Oh I see. Good to know!
It wasn't different enough that those chicken wings would let a 15,000 lb critter fly. It had more oxygen, which was helpful for letting critters get big (esp insects), but it wasnt physically thick.
That's the joke
One idea is that T Rex arms were used to latch onto prey. Their arms were short, but very muscular.
The would have been about as useful for gliding as a rear spoiler on a car.
I like the idea that their feather ratio would be more like a chicken or a turkey... and they would just be there absolutely chonky birds...
Something way back in my ancestry just cowered deep in a hole and I felt it.
tyrannosaurs didn't have the advanced feathers seen on birds, so it wouldn't be possible for them to have wings
chickens are definitely my favourite dinosaur, tastiest one plus they lay big eggs.
Found the guy who never ate fried microraptor wings.
yet to find it in local stores sadly, and i'm unwilling to order food online.
Brontosaurus. Just a gigantic chill dude.
I don't know....After watching Primal, I can never look at a Bronto the same way again....
Ankylosaurus, give me a living tank with a club for a tail that could likely damage a real tank.
Another Anky vote here!
Club-Style thagomizer club represent!
I like Allosaurs.
I like someosaurs.
I like dinosaurus
Oh hell yeah!
Allosaurus had a lot to like. Great choice
Archaeopteryx
It is to our understanding of dinosaur & avian evolution what Lucy is to our understanding of human evolution. Also it looks cool.
Triceratops people hold strong!
Diplodocus, because I love the name
Do you say Dip-lod-o-kuss or Dip-low-dock-uss?
This is why we have the IPA
I always like pterodactyls, specifically the classic big lizard ones. I do have a tiny Dimetrodon in my pc case though that I got out of a crane machine.
Pterodactyls aren't dinosaurs, FYI: they're pterosaurs. It doesn't matter in the least, but I have a 5-year-old so I'm learning a lot about prehistoric reptiles.
Nor is dimetrodon haha. They're all excellent though
There's two big groups of four-limbed vertebrates: amphibians (like frogs), and amniotes (like us and birds). Amniotes developed into two groups: synapsids (mammals) and saurapsids (lizards, birds, turtles, etc.).
Dimetrodon was a synapsid that ruled the world tens of millions of years before the first dinosaurs evolved.
That makes it really cool, actually, precisely because it isn't a dinosaur. Dimetrodon is to us as brotosaurus is to chickens: a really interesting great great etc uncle.
Agreed!
That moment when someone mentions something and it brings back old memories. I had a big pterodactyl as a kid, sold as a plastic model kit to assemble. Had it hanging from the ceiling for years, and had long forgotten it.
I did the wood skeleton dinosaur models. I had a few of them as a kid and might do a few now.
Pterodactyls are terrifying. Good choice!
Pterrifying
I married a Dactyl and they’re the best anything in the ever.
Ravens.
Hey, I'm technically more correct than everyone who chose dimetrodon, pterosaurs, plesiosauroidea, or crocodilians.
Corvids are particularly awesome.
Growing up is learning your favorite dinosaur isn't actually a dinosaur. (mine was pterodactyl)
Growing up is learning your favorite bird is a dinosaur
I would genuinely rather hear what everyone's favorite dinosaur is, than who their favorite sports team is. Yet, society thinks I should care whole lot about the latter...
Poking the bear are we?
Deinonychus, definitely :)
Woohoo same here since I was a tiny wee lad But also shout-out to Amargosaurus, they're pretty cool.
Mine are crows and pigeons. Those count, right?
Crow team!
As long as we are using looser definitions mine are Pleisosaurus for an aquatic, Pterodactyl for air and Brachiosaurus for land.
Ankylosaurus peeps, stand the fuck up.
Brachiosaurus because they look as some kind of fictional creature.
And they're tall bois
Legit crying that no one has said spinosaurus yet
Pterodactyl and its not even close lol.
Its like, dinosaurs are cool, but you know what's cooler? Dinosaurs that can fly
Pterodactyl isn't even a dinosaur!
What's your favorite pterosaur then?
Quetzalcoatlus, bebe!
Dinosaurs can't fly
Spinosaurus until the end.
I love chickens.
Tastysaurus
Stego is in my top 5. 👍
I'm just fascinated by the sauropods. The big ones. I'm gonna go with Supersaurus (because super! Lol)
Sci Am article on how sauropods evolved to be huge over and over again
Pterodactyl. And now I have the dinosaur train theme stuck in my head. 🦖
argentinosaurus. Largest land animal to have ever existed. That's my favourite dinosaur.
That would be Mongolian Titanosaur for me. The bastard's massive.
As a child, Velociraptor, as an adult I probably wouldn't choose a velociraptor because of how deadly they are. I would probably choose a more friendly docile dinosaur but I honestly don't know what the best one would be.
Apatosaurus
There were some really dinosaur-like crocodiles, too. Shuvosaurus and poposaurus, for example.
But for whatever reason, they decided to define dinosaurs to exclude pterosaurs and crocodiles; they're the closest relatives of dinosaurs but are still relatives and not actual dinos.
Birds, though, are legit dinosaurs.
Biologists like using clades to describe things, these days. A clade is all the descendants of some common ancestor on an evolutionary tree.
That particularly means that they disfavor terms that refer to almost all of the descendants of something, but exclude one branch because reasons. Which does make sense, right? "Paraphyletic groups" are like saying "The Vanderbilt family is all the descendants of Cornelius Vanderbilt... except for Anderson Cooper and his descendants".
So the technical definition of dinosaur, right now, is anything descended from the most recent common ancestor of triceratops, diplodocus, and the house sparrow.
I mean, that is not how it works. Also, crocodiles don't look like any dinosaur I can think of?
Classification is based on genetic relationships, not looks, so bats aren't birds, for example.
Based on what?
Various extinct crocodiles like Poposaurus were initially confused with dinosaurs due to some convergent evolution.
But modern crocs lack a lot of distinctive dinosaur traits, like having their legs directly under them.
More to the point, though, look at this fossil of caihong juji and tell me it doesn't look more like a bird than a crocodile. Through a minor geologic miracle, the feathers were even preserved! It even seems like they were probably quite colorful.
Crocodiles are vastly different in appearance to any dinosaur that has been discovered
Look at t-rex's bird-like hips and feet. Compare them to the sprawling legs of a croc. Posture- wise, it looks way more like an ostrich than a croc.
And yeah, T-rex was almost certainly scaly, but evolved from feathered dinosaurs. Other earlier species in tyrannosauroidea like yutyrannus huali and dilong paradoxus had feathers.
Not really. even for dinosaurs that are famous for being crocodile-like, its quite hard to see the resemblance
Liopleurodon.
Iguanodon.
Because they are herbivores and are badass with their killer thumbs. Also they have funny looking faces and probably had a funny walk similar to a kangaroo.
Researches first put their thumb horns on their noses which is hilarious as well.
Iguanodon't
Mine's Stegosaurus too! Hello buddy!
If only Sturgeon was a dinosaur..
It is technically prehistoric, which I did not know until now. Same with coelacanths, and they're pretty damn cool.
I don't think my poor, sweet Dunkleosteus really qualifies as what people think of when they think dinosaur, either. But it turned its supportive gill arches into the world's first jawbones!
I named my motorcycle Sarah from The Land Before Time. Guess mine is a Triceratops. She got the name because she's punchy and Hella fast. Love you YZF-R6
Stegosaurus was my favorite too as a kid. These days I've grown more boring ig and I would probably go with T-Rex, but Stegosaurus will always have a place in my heart too.
Hard to choose.
Nodosaurus: (mummified then fossilized: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mummified-armored-dinosaur-makes-its-debut-1-180963311/)
Microraptor: 4 winged dinosaur
Allosaurus
Apatosaurus
Steggy all the way!
All the avian ones.
are you talking avian dinosaurs or current birds that have descended from dinosaurs? or both?
"Avian dinosaurs" is current birds. The term "non-avian dinosaurs" is often used specifically to refer to what the casual person is usually thinking of when they hear the word "dinosaur".
are there any other avian species than those descended from dinosaurs? (not trying to argue or salvage a lost argument, but is there?)
EDIT -- yes, i'm a dummy... flies, mosquitoes, bats.. ugh, i should really cut back on my cannabis
No, you were right the first time. Avian doesn't mean "flying", but "relating to birds". Basically, dinosaurs are a big tree (the technical term is "clade") consisting of all animals that descend from a particular common ancestor (the last common ancestor of all dinosaurs). Because all birds descend from the same last common ancestor as raptors, sauropods, ceratopsia (e.g. triceratops), etc., birds are dinosaurs.
There seems to be some disagreement about the precise use of terminology in formal contexts, but I think in an informal context the term "avian" in "non-avian dinosaurs" has a comparatively clear meaning. Avians seems to point to the clade "aves", which are (in this case) the last common ancestor of all the currently living birds and all of its descendants. So non-avian dinosaurs is taking the clade of all creatures descended from the last common ancestor of all dinosaurs, and snipping off the sub-clade of those creatures descended from the last common ancestor of all birds.
Pterosaurs are among the most closely-related creatures to dinosaurs, but are not quite included. Bats are a long way removed from the clade of dinosaurs, and insects are even further away. None of these are avian, despite sharing the ability for flight.
Incidentally, you do seem to have touched upon three of the four separate times flight has evolved. Insects, birds, and bats. The fourth being pterosaurs. It's also thought that scansoriopterygidae, another family of dinosaurs, might have been able to fly (they could definitely at least glide), which would mean dinosaurs evolved flight two separate times: scansoriopterygidae and birds.
Probably dino. He was a good boy.
Quetzalcoatlus, easy.
Velociraptor all the way, they could kill a T-Rex together.
Not according to the documentary Jurassic Park.
If we are counting anything prehistoric from Ark as a dinosaur then Chalicotherium, if only old school Dino's then Compsognathus.
Brontosaurus!
Diplodocus. Far superior in looks to the brontosaurus
I see people listing their favourites... what is your favourite dinosaur?
I wonder if trex looked more like a with a weird face than a modern lizard.
I just think it'd be funny to see a giant version of a chicken running around doing the chicken football thing except with a cow or something.
We never cared
In truth, the game was rigged from the start!
I cared.
And I judge you for your poor choices.
Best is triceratops, btw.
I'm your nemesis! The lame kid that never found dinosaurs very interesting, yes, I shall bring my rule over all dinosaur lovers, for they must suffer too the staleness of a shallow life! I'll make everyone's life a plain, boring grayness, MWAHAHAH- Can you tell me more about the triceratops?
(｡•́︿•̀｡)
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